ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) - Supporters of a garage-based gun store on Southeast Sharon Avenue in Roseburg came out in force Monday night to defend the business against accusations that it drives up traffic on the otherwise quiet street.
The Roseburg City Council spent nearly two hours hearing from supporters of KC’s Exchange, a gun store owned and operated out of the home of an elderly couple, who decried anonymous complaints that led the city to issue an abatement in May last year. The city contended that, in addition to four complaints, the gun store also violated city land-use codes about running a business in a residential neighborhood.
The supporters Monday night balked at the idea that traffic was an issue.
“I go down that road six times a day. There’s never a traffic problem,” said Gary Leif, a downtown business owner who owns three properties near KC’s Exchange. Leif said he wasn’t aware a business was even being run there, despite having lived in the area for seven years. “A friend said to me, ’Have you been to KC’s Exchange?’ and I said, ’I don’t even know what that is.’”
KC’s Exchange, owned by Ken and Carolyn Kellim, has been doing business on Southeast Sharon Avenue since 2013. The couple had been in the gun-selling business since 1995 but shuttered the first store on Southeast Stephens Street in 2003 when Carolyn Kellim decided she wanted to spend more time at home.
The couple reopened the shop after spending $5,000 to retrofit the garage to turn it into a fully stocked gun store. Carolyn Kellim, 86, who estimates she sold 600 guns last year, said that the store gives her purpose in her retirement years.
“I’m not ready to die. The people who take off and loll around in the sun don’t live very long,” she said.
However, the city had received complaints that the business was inundating the quiet neighborhood with traffic, a claim the couple and supporters deny. On May 19, 2014, the city issued an abatement notice asking the store to end its retail business, which the couple appealed 10 days later.
The two sides convened in November 2014 and agreed that if the gun store would limit business to three customers per day - an idea reportedly hatched by KC’s Exchange and its legal team - it could operate quietly in the neighborhood. Christopher Peterman, the Kellim’s lawyer, said they were under the impression the deal was for three firearm purchases per day, not three customers total.
“What I suggested on behalf of Mrs. Kellim was that we would limit the live persons to three per day. I think what was lost in translation was that we didn’t anticipate that meant we would close the door and lock out anyone who showed up,” Peterman said. “What we anticipated is that we would try to limit the sales and the foot traffic by kind of motivating individuals to come. We didn’t anticipate that if someone showed up later in the afternoon we’d literally have to lock them out.”
City Manager Lance Colley said the business could operate as long as it honored the three-customer limit, as well as advertising the business as “by appointment only.”
Peterman also said that the owners donate the store’s profits to Casa de Belen, a homeless shelter for teens. Utility payments come out-of-pocket, and Carolyn Kellim volunteers her time, Peterman said.
“She takes no salary, she takes no employees, she has no wages,” Peterman said. “She has done this from the beginning as purely a donation-based enterprise.”
Patty McCue, director for Casa de Belen, said Kellim has been donating $500 to $1,000 per month for the last two years. On Friday, McCue told The News-Review she couldn’t understand why anyone would try to make business harder for KC’s Exchange when its proceeds go to a nonprofit.
“For me, it’s kind of silly that we have a person who is running a legitimate business, using profits to benefit the community, and I don’t know why we’d want to shut her down,” McCue said.
Among the speakers was Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice, who is a regular customer at the gun store. He told the city that he hoped the two sides could find common ground, though he disagreed with the claim that the store is a magnet for traffic.
“When guns get in the mix it’s always a heated topic, but for me it seems like there should be some compromise that could be reached here,” Boice said. “The three cars per day is kind of pointless. If you’re going to limit her traffic, there’s no way to limit the cars after her three customers show up.”
Yet city councilors couldn’t decide whether the gun store’s violations were penalty enough to warrant shutting the store down entirely. Some councilors argued that if they let the business remain open, they may set a negative precedent.
“They say be careful what you wish for, and I think that for the applicant the risk is that we could all decide, even though you’re doing great things and everybody supports you, we can’t in good conscience violate the ordinance,” City Councilor Steve Kaser said. “… On the flip side, it could go the other way. What I’m trying to communicate is that it makes sense to try and get this compromise because you may not like the result.”
After a 5-2 vote, the city council told the city and the gun store representatives to try to come to a compromise before the next city council meeting June 8.
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Information from: The News-Review, https://www.nrtoday.com
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